Gluten Free Pad Thai & French Macaroons!

Apparently Mother Nature read my post yesterday because today I woke up to a blanket of snow covering everything outside! It was so beautiful! It finally looked like winter in Cincy!

Tonight for dinner, I made Gluten Free Pad Thai. It was FANTASTIC! (if I do say so myself) :) This was so delicious, we were all practically licking our plates. Spicey, sweet and sour all come together in a zesty symphony of flavors that keep you coming back for more!

GF pad thai

Here’s the sauce:

2 grated garlic cloves

1/4 cup tamari

1/4 c fresh squeezed lime juice

2 T tamarind paste (I omitted this because we didn’t have any)

1 1/2 T apple cider vinegar or rice wine vinegar

1 T red curry paste

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/8 cup agave or 1/4 c brown sugar (we used agave)

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp toasted sesame oil or EVOO (we used EVOO)

Combine those in a bowl and whisk together. Set aside for later.

beautiful and tasty!

Then I prepared my veggies:

2 large carrots, diced

1/4 red onion, finely diced

bunch of green onions, chopped

5 button mushrooms, sliced

At the very end, you will also add,

1/2 c frozen peas

bean sprouts

And garnish with:

fresh cilantro, chopped

peanuts, chopped

Tofu is optional, but I wanted the protein, so I pressed, diced, marinated, and roasted it. You can see my tofu tutorial here.

You will also need 2 eggs–preferably pastured farm fresh eggs :)

So this meal is a bit labor intensive, but so worth it in the end.  It is important to have everything chopped, set out, and ready to go, because this meal all comes together at the very last minute.

You’ll want to try and time your brown rice noodles to finish cooking around the same time that your vegetable/sauce mixture is ready to go.

1) Start to sautee onions and carrots in a large frying pan in 2 tsp EVOO and sprinkle of sea salt.

2) Scramble 2 eggs in a separate frying pan for just a minute and put on a plate and set aside—the egg whites should still be runny, as they will finish cooking when you add them back in at the end.

3) After 4-5 minutes, add the mushrooms and green onions to the carrots and onions. After the mushrooms soften, add the tofu, bean sprouts, and frozen peas. After a minute, add the scrambled eggs and stir for a minute.

4) Add the hot noodles to vegetable mix and pour in the sauce. Toss to coat.

5) Plate it up and top with cilantro and chopped peanuts!

6) DIG IN!

Just a note: The cilantro is not just for garnish–it really elevates the flavor and brings an appreciated light freshness to a deep, hearty sauce.

yummmmm

The different textures in the dish are so wonderful. The crunchy bean sprouts and peanuts, chewy tofu and mushrooms, and slurpy noodles come together in this tangy thai treat! And I don’t know what tamarind paste is, but we sure didn’t miss it.

I was pretty adventurous today in the kitchen. I driven to make french macaroons. I think I was looking for a challenge.  I had never whipped egg whites before, I had never used a pastry bag–bring it on!

"rustic" macaroons :)

So French Macaroons are amazing because they are gluten free! Woo!! Yay almond flour! Did you know it has 6 grams of protein per 1/4 cup?! Wow! I followed Martha Stewart’s recipe and instructions found here. If you don’t have a pastry bag, just use a gallon ziplock bag and snip a corner ;)

For the filling, I melted some chocolate chips and added a splash of almond milk and enough confectioners sugar to make the right consistency.

a teeny tiny tasty morsel

These were so amazing. Aside from the chocolate chip filling, these are fat free! Crisp outside, chewy inside. This is a repeat recipe!

And they're so simple to make!! With my KitchenAid Stand Mixer, you can whip the egg whites in a breeze! Here's the KitchenAid I have...again, it's an investment, but one that you will use again and again...like a pair of black pants:) And they have so many different attachments! My sister-in-law just got the pasta making attachment, and it is SO cool! Here's the link:

Until next time! Happy tummies!